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Topic: The 10 Essentials (Read 6832 times)

The "Ten Essentials" are survival items that hiking organizations recommend for safe travel in the backcountry. {Wikipedia link. DWD}The Ten Essentials were first described in the 1930s by The Mountaineers, a hiking and mountain climbing club. Many regional organizations and authors recommend that hikers, backpackers, and climbers rigorously ensure they have the ten essentials with them.

MAPS: For prepping, you should have a variety of maps handy, of your neighborhood, town, county, state or region (depending on size of state), bug out locations and routes to them. (Multiple BOLs and multiple routes for each, if feasible.) Sources of maps:

I like Thomas Guides for road maps and general navigation and planning.

I also like US Geological Survey maps for wilderness/off road travel. Welcome to the USGS - U.S. Geological Survey Note that this is NOT an Amazon link, I couldn't find USGS maps on Amazon. You can download older scans of most 7 and 15 minute quadrangles from this site, but I am concentrating on "dead tree" maps.

COMPASS. The temptation here may be to get a GPS and rely on that. I trust anyone reading this will know better; however, there is nothing wrong with having a GPS, as long as you know the possible shortcomings, and have a physical map, a compass, and know how to use them. Compass Brands:

Silva. The Ranger is hard to beat. During my Army career, at leats as many peopl ecarried one of these as the issue lensatic.

Brunton Compass. I haven't used one of these, but I haven't heard anything bad about any Brunton gear.

Suunto also makes well spoken of compasses, but they seem to be concentrating on electronic devices these days.

I would avoid a "military style" lensatic compass, mostly because I wouldn't trust it's accuracy or durability.

SUNGLASSES: The only advice I will give here is to avoid fashion statements, and get a pair that fits you, is durable, and is polarized. SUNSCREEN. In addition to being a high SPF#, should be waterproof, and easy to apply. If we're talking about a bug out kit or the like, make sure it is packaged well enough that it will survive.

EXTRA FOOD. Forget the diet. You need a high enough caloric intake to sustain some fairly stressful periods. Your actual food planning will depend on too many variables to go into the subject in this post, but a couple of points:

MREs are bulky and expensive, but designed to have a long shelf life, and to provide a high calory, nutritious, and varied diet for an infantryman in combat.

Another option for a BOB or GHB might be "lifeboat food bars", such as Datrex.

EXTRA WATER. The options here are endless. Going with a canteen or water bottle versus a hydration pack of some sort would be a lengthy post in itself. However, purification is essential for any event that we are prepping for; keep in mind that, if you live in the city and a non-TEOTWAWKI event occurs, the sewage and water treatment systems might be compromised. In case of a "boil order", you might want an alternative. Keep in mind that a FILTER strains "stuff" out of the water, and a PURIFIER" kills critters in the water that might be too small to be strained. Some devices do both, or imply that they do. Filters include Katadyn, MSR, and Aquamira. The later makes one filter that will snap onto some hydration pack mouthpieces. Purifiers are available from each of the filter manufacturers.

EXTRA CLOTHES. Do you really need any help with this one? Actually, an observation: Again, avoid fashion statements. Clothing should be durable, comfortable, and appropriate to the climate and season. When the Mountaineers were writing their book, they probably recommended wool and nothing else; at the time, the only other option was cotton, and if that gets wet, you're dead. Nowadays, there are so many synthetics that will keep you warm even if they get wet, it makes my head spin...

HEADLAMP/FLASHLIGHT: for prepping, I avoid rechargeables, since the means to recharge may not be available. I like to minimize battery types as well, preferring to have all devices use the same, AAs, mostly, or AAAs. LED lights these days can provide very good light for very low battery drain. Brands:

FIRST AID KIT: You can easily buy a ready-made kit, but you should research likely needs and be prepared to add critical items to the kit. Also, GET TRAINING!I like Adventure Medical Kits brand of kits, but YMMV. They are available for a wide range of sizes, uses, and pocketbooks.

FIRE STARTER: While cheap, plastic disposable lighters are readily available, they tend to be frail, and butane does not perform well in low temperatures or air pressure.

A Zippo is hard to beat, and you can fuel it with gasoline or diesel if necessary.

A search for "Windproof Lighter" returned a wide variety of makes and designs; let me know how any of those work for you...

MATCHES: You can take STRIKE ANYWHERE matches and coat the heads with melted wax to waterproof them, but you will have to remove the wax to strike them.

KNIFE. Oh, dear. Another topic worthy of it's own post, not to say board, or two, or three...

As a general rule, folding knives are handier to haul around than fixed blades. A locking blade folder is safer and better for most tasks. Note that even Swiss Army Knives are available with locking blades now.

Avoid exotic materials. (Damascus, ceramic, etc.)

Avoid hollow-handle "Rambo" or "survival" knives.

Avoid "tactical", "combat", or "fighting" knives, unless you're in the military, in an MOS where actual hand-to-hand combat is likely.

Get a sharpener, or better yet, a sharpening system. Learn to use it.

Make sure the sheath or pouch is sturdy, secure, and durable. Consider replacing it with an after-market one.

That's not one of the "classic" 10 Essentials. They didn't have those in the 1930s... I imagine it will be included when I do the "Updated/modern/revised" version, probably tomorrow.

BTW, my parents knew a guy who was offered an opportunity to get in on the ground floor of an investment that he walked away from, laughing. I mean, really, who would pay good money for plastic garbage bags...?

HEADLAMP/FLASHLIGHT: for prepping, I avoid rechargeables, since the means to recharge may not be available. I like to minimize battery types as well, preferring to have all devices use the same, AAs, mostly, or AAAs. LED lights these days can provide very good light for very low battery drain.

Agreed. The house brand AA and AAA cells from Costco are excellent alkaline batteries for flashlights that get used a lot. For applications where the batteries will not get used that often, or if the battery powered device is expensive, I use the Energizer Ultimate Lithium AA cells.

There may be too many items on here that rely on batteries or or electrical power source, but then, "Two is one and one is none": We should have multiples of most critical items.Personally, I think fishing is over-rated as a survival strategy, but that may just be because fish laugh at my name, to turn the t-shirt around...

i'm looking to buy some of the things (sharpener, med kit perhaps) and want to make sure he gets credits (s)

Unless I'm mistaken and I don't think I am, There is an easy way to ensure you support this site without worrying whether a link has been attributed to Bill, or not.

Simply go to one of Bill's recommended Amazon posts and open it through the link there, even if you may not be interested in that particular item. Once the Amazon page opens, bookmark it and save it. I have mine listed in my bookmarks as Bill Q's Amazon Link. Then when ever you go shop at Amazon, if you open it at that bookmark, you will be in Bill's area. Once there you can navigate wherever you want and still create a commission to support Emergency Preps.

Here is my BOB top ten listColt 1911 .45 acp and 100 rounds of ammoGood knife ( for skinning and daily use)Fire starterWater purifacation unit(small and portable)1 change of clothes1 good high grade tarp.(used for shelter and other things)Food( freeze dried or MRE'S)Good first aid kit( with any meds you need)LED Flashlight with spare power sourceHand crank radio with light. Maybe not the perfect list as 10 items cant cover my every need. No room for a fishing kit, more ammo and many other items you will need such as bug repellent and a hatchet or ax. And of course I will carry my 870 12 gauge, and a rifle of my choosing. Also my BOB or my back pack will hold more than 10 items. But to hit the road when the SHTF is my last resort. The home place has all we need to make it for at least 1 year if not longer. So to run IMHO will be a bad mistake. But one must be ready for anything....Captain Morgan... Pray for the best, plan and be rwady for the worst.

American parachutists...devils in baggy pants...are less than 100 meters from my outpost line. I can't sleep at night; they pop up from nowhere and we never know when or how they will strike next. Seems like the black-hearted devils are everywhere....